*sigh*  I seem to be doing this more and more...  Lawson-san, sorry about
sending this to you twice.  I forgot to Cc: it to the FFML.  Gomen ne.  I
also added a bunch of stuff in since what I wrote originally sounded
stupid.  Ja.

-----------------------------------------------------

On Tue, 5 May 1998 13:12:06 -0500 "Richard D. Lawson" 
<sterman@uswest.net> writes:

<snip>

*That's* the real tragedy of "The Bitter End".  I was much 
more angry at Ranma, Nodoka, Kasumi, Ukyo et. al. for 
not forcing Akane into treatment than I was at Akane for 
beating Ranma.

-Richard

*raise eyebrow*  Rather harsh, don't you think Lawson-san?  On the whole,
I was actually sympathetic for all involved merely because they ALL were
somehow at fault, and that no one really had the right to blame someone
more than the other.  Is it Ranma's fault that he loved Akane so much
that he couldn't bear to go against her wishes?  Is it Akane's fault that
she suffers from a disease (mental illness) that obscures and clouds her
judgement regarding Ranma?  Is it Nodoka's fault that she is so set in
her ways she cannot see Ranma is not at fault for Akane's anger?  And is
Kasumi to blame for not being able to distinguish between Akane's
"casual" attacks on Ranma before they were married and her more violent
ones after they were married?  What about Ukyou?  Should she be blamed
for not doing something about the situation when she knew that would lead
to Ranma loosing enormous amounts of trust in her?  Of course, it's easy
to say "yes" to all these questions, but if you think about it very
closely, it's not that easy for anyone to bring about a change and go
against the flow.  Ukyou tried, and for that she is to be commended, but
OTOH, the others shouldn't be blamed for not acting, but just pitied
because they didn't.  It's easy to say, "Yeah, and Akane should have
known!!" or "Ranma should have gone and reported Akane or gotten her
treatement if he REALLY cared for her."  But believe me, it's a lot
harder to act when you're actually in the situation.  Remember, hindsight
is 20/20.  How do you expect Akane to listen when she is doing something
she believes is normal (ie. bashing Ranma)?  I think it was even
admirable that she was able to acknowledge it, but sad that she was
unable to recognize how much damage she was doing until it was too late. 
Funny, I never thought I'd see myself defending Zen's piece.  I mean,
initially, I hated it for what it did to the characters, but after
writing Zen, I merely gained respect for it because of how well-written
it was as well as how it dealt with a delicate subject.  If you want a
realistic version of what is very likely to happen, well, TBE is it,
folks.  IMO, of course.  Ja.

doKuSHInsHA
Member of the #AAS#: Achika Appreciation Society

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